From the President

Gillian Govan, President

(The) Greatest value of having people around us is not what we get from them but the better person we become because of them. That is the power of Association. –Vincent Menezes

We had a great get together at the home and studio of Jenny Whiteside last Wednesday. Jenny is a self-taught Sculptor but has achieved so much since she chiselled her first piece of stone. In her talk she quoted Michael Meszaros who said that sculpture is all about problem solving. How true. From the first idea it is about how to bring the initial idea to fruition or to find a beautiful sculpture in a piece of timber or how to balance found objects or metal to make a statement. Whether we have formal art training or are self-taught or just learn as we go along it is all a learning process. What materials do we use? We usually have some idea and preferences and we know if we like to construct or carve. But sometimes the idea requires experimentation or a process we have never attempted.

We discussed this at our Committee meeting and came to the realisation that the ASV can play a huge part in development of our works. We all have skills. We have all learnt by our mistakes. We have all solved problems.

We are an Association of Sculptors. Can we help each other? Yes, we can. We learnt so much at Jenny’s place on Wednesday not just about carving, we discussed social media, mold making, and tools. Drawing and painting as a precursor, outcome or partner to sculpting. All so interesting.


Do you have some skills that you could pass on? Would you be happy for other members to contact you? Can we visit your workshop/studio?

Do you need help? Have you a problem that needs solving? Who can you ask? I would like to know a bit about tools for Wood carving.

We already have a visit to a foundry organised, a talk on Social media and I may even give a short talk, with a little help, about mold making. What can you do?

We can all help each other by contact, referral and advice. What do you think? Please contact a member of the committee with your ideas or just send messages to our newsletter editor.

Gillian Govan